Fallout 3 has been cleared for sale in the U.K. with no content edits required.

That's the word from the British Board of Film Classification, which yesterday stamped the much-anticipated Bethesda title with an 18 rating, meaning that it can legally be sold to those of that age and older.

Curiously, a "consumer advice" note posted with the rating decision does not mention the drug use which got Fallout 3banned in Australia earlier this year. The only reference to content is "Contains very strong bloody violence and gore."

The BBFC, currently embroiled in a power struggle for control of U.K. game ratings, is best known to gamers for the outright ban it placed on Manhunt 2 last year. That decision was later overturned by Britain's High Court.

Comments

In the original fallout 1/2 you could murder children while on drugs and that made it to the USA fine. Didn't turn anyone I know into a child killing jet addictSmile. Though I think the children had to be removed from the European version.

I'm not really surprised. besides here in the UK violence is considered bad. Whereas bad language and nudity, no problem! But someone said that makes us Liberal? No, it just means we're not bible bashing idiots!

I think this may be the biggest non story i have read unless it's a preamble to a ban coming in australia.Basically this story says Fallout 3 gets an 18 certificate as expected. I don't recall hearing for a ban being called either.

If people had actually paid attention to the BBFC *before* Manhunt 2, they'd realise this behaviour is par for the course. Them not mentioning the drug references is nothing special - they would have played the game and therefore realised all such references were both allegorical and contextual.

You mean like the ESRB jumped at the chance to rerate Oblivion 18 after mods were found or GTA to AO after Hot Coffee? What did the BBFC do? Nothing. Why? Because they didn't bow to the pressure and lies spread by papers and news stations over Oblivion (it being mods not actual content) and also even IF GTA *HAD* been released with the sex it in, it STILL would have gotten an 18 rating because we aren't all squeamish about sex this side of the pond.

I stand corrected on that, I did some further checking and although I can't find up to date stats, 120 stores was the figure for 2001. I could have sworn I seen R18 dvd's last time I was Anne Summers but it must have been plain ordinary 18 dvds.

Its just seems like such a low number when you consider the crazy volume of R18 material thats avalible (for example check out the recent BBFC classification decisions DVD section, there are on average two or three new R18 movies a day.)

The BBFC have been rating games since the 1980s and only twice have they refused classification, and that was only becuase of pressure from the media, something neither the ESRB or PEGI is immune to. What makes you assume they'd jump at the chance? They're not nearly as dranconian as US posters who have probably never even visited the UK make out. In fact, they're very liberal, leading to a '12' rating for Mass Effect, when everybody else rated it 16+.

The ban was not overturned by the British High Court. The only part the courts played was when the BBFC applied for a judicial review of the original report the VAC submitted. The High Court ruled that the report did not correctly address the criteria in the video records act and required the VAC to re-review its finding. The VAC then filed a second report that did address the video recordings act upon which the BBFC were required to issue the classification which they did.

At no point did the High Court overturn anything besides he VAC's original report.

Actually Zipster, it was the VAC that didn't want to take it to the High Court, not the BBFC. The BBFC wanted a judicial review, hence the case being taken to a Judge. End of, really. Nothing suspect IMHO.

Even though I much prefer the ESRB because I am more use to it, I find the BBFC just fine. It did ban Manhunt 2, and the ESRB gave it an AO, which is almost the same thing, but just not technically a ban.

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PHX Corp: I launched my spotify account today, and I kinda went a little overboard with adding music03/31/2015 - 3:59pm

Sora-Chan: Con't. Games like AC are a pain to someone like me who likes to play games in order. So when a game gets too many releases too quickly, it puts me off. Only exceptions are games that have no interconnected underlying stories like the FF games.03/31/2015 - 2:53pm

Sora-Chan: Wikipedia has rarely let me down on matters like this. But yeah... AC needs a break.. like two.. or three... or eight years.03/31/2015 - 2:51pm

Conster: There's 9 already?! I think I played 1, 2, and the ones inbetween 2 and 3.03/31/2015 - 2:23pm

Sora-Chan: Con't There are now Nine... of just the main entries into the series. There are 13 more in the "other games" department.03/31/2015 - 2:15pm

Sora-Chan: I tried to get into AC. Was having a decent time with the first one, at which point they had already released three titles. Then a fourth came out... then a fifth... the wall kept growing before I could finish the first.03/31/2015 - 2:14pm

Daniel Lewis: I think ubisoft should give AC a break before it's milked to death,and i'm a big fan of the games03/31/2015 - 1:15pm

Daniel Lewis: The only thing said i disagree with is the final quote on Men's experiences are seen to be universal but women are gendered,though doesn't anita say that games with male protagonists are male power fantasies,so in turn both are gendered03/31/2015 - 1:08pm

Daniel Lewis: i found the video to be much better than any of the TvW series and it's about time the positive women are put in the spotlight03/31/2015 - 1:06pm

Daniel Lewis: So feministfrequency released a positive female character video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gXmj2yJNUmQ03/31/2015 - 1:05pm

Daniel Lewis: I think the guy who made the direct leak said it was an april fools joke when a real one was announced03/31/2015 - 12:43pm

MaskedPixelante: No way Nintendo would let information like that get out. Remember, they shut down a memoir about the localization of Earthbound by enforcing a 20 year old NDA on the author.03/31/2015 - 12:42pm

james_fudge: Conster: the larger issue is that Ind. does not protect LGBTQ+ people under state law03/31/2015 - 12:11pm

PHX Corp: @MP I think it is confirmed(not an April Fools joke) http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/31/nintendo-direct-confirmed-for-wednesday-april-1st/03/31/2015 - 12:00pm

Conster: Apparently Pence intends to amend SB101 so denying service isn't allowed - without explicitly protecting LGBT+ and while still allowing the many other things you can get away with now if it's motivated by your religious beliefs.03/31/2015 - 11:53am

MaskedPixelante: http://mynintendonews.com/2015/03/30/rumour-nintendo-direct-on-april-1st/ A supposed full leak of tomorrow's Nintendo Direct, so you can all laugh and laugh about how wrong it is.03/31/2015 - 11:35am

PHX Corp: http://kotaku.com/why-a-tekken-7-character-is-being-called-a-phoney-1694724959 Why a Tekken 7 Character Is Being Called a Phoney03/31/2015 - 10:08am

Michael Chandra: Argh. Anyway, I'm glad that move was made. Wonder if it counts, can he just declare it like that? 03/31/2015 - 9:27am